People increasingly turn to the World Wide Web when they want to perform financial transactions of all types. This is exemplified, for example by the increasing number of people who do their banking online. Other examples include people who pay bills and trade securities using their web browsers.
The popularity of the web as a means to perform financial transactions is largely attributable to ease of use. Using the web is certainly easier than actually going to a bank or brokerage. Using the web can also be easier than performing the same transaction over the phone. This is especially true when one considers the fact that users do not typically encounter busy signals when performing web-based transactions. Users also appreciate the near constant (i.e., seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day) availability of many web services.
Still, it is often the case that users lose some level of service when they choose to do business on the web. People who use online brokerages may, for example, miss the type of guidance and advice they receive from an actual human broker or investment counselor. In many cases, losses of this nature are considered to be an acceptable trade off. This is analogous to the case of automated teller machines (ATMS) where the customer trades convenience for quality of service.
In other cases, it may not be practical or desirable to make this type of quality of service trade-off. This is often true where transactions are complex and difficult to understand. Transactions that have important or expensive consequences can be another area where it may be difficult to make a quality of service trade-off. The same concern applies where transactions involve unsophisticated or novice users.
Online brokerages are an example of all of these elements. The transactions made using an online brokerage may involve complex data and often require thorough analysis. The consequences of making bad trading decisions can (for obvious reasons) be extremely expensive. Online brokerages are also cater to a range of different users, including novice and otherwise unsophisticated users.
For these and other reasons, a need exists for systems that reduce the complexity that is associated with some types of online transactions. This is particularly important for online brokerages and other cases where transactions can be complex, expensive and involve unsophisticated users.